


The Beginning Of This New Life

by ImJustYourSacrifice



Category: Tuck Everlasting - Natalie Babbitt
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff everywhere, just a lil' bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 21:01:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6675310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImJustYourSacrifice/pseuds/ImJustYourSacrifice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would happen if Winnie drank the water?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beginning Of This New Life

You had just turned 17. Mother threw you a big party, and everything. Invited friends, family, even people you don't even know, and you actually enjoyed this. Meeting people, and talking to people you haven’t talked to for along time. But you had to let that go. Ever since that day, you knew you had to let this go. 7 years ago, a boy named Jesse Tuck had given you something that could change your life, and it happens now. It's almost midnight now and you're trying to be as quiet as possible, trying not to wake your parents. You grab your suitcase from your closet and start filling it with things you might need. Clothes of course, and some of your favorite books. You zip up your bag and put it to the side, and you start looking for the bottle you haven't seen in years. After a few moments of looking, you finally find it. You hold it, as if it will kill you if you dropped it. You stand up, and you start opening the bottle.

You open the bottle, slowly turning the cap and popping it off. You hesitate at first, but you think about the different life you can live. Exploring the world, learning new things you've never known about.. Or not having the freedom you want, and being forced into things you don´t wanna do. You know what to do now. You raise your hand, throwing your head back and drinking the water, and it's the best water you've had. You were never someone to describe water, well for once water is basically tasteless, but this water, this water was fantastic. It was like a river flowing in your mouth, feeling so pure, so real. You swallow the water and lower the bottle screwing the cap back on. This is it, you'll be living a new life from now on. You grab your suitcase and put the bottle inside, and start walking over to to the window, since it’s your only exit. You lift the window and made your way to the edge of the roof. “This is it,” you think. And you jump.

You find yourself walking in the woods, with no sense of direction at all. It was all a guessing game, making rights and lefts when you feel it's the right time to do so. You’re looking for the spring, and you hope, oh god, you really hope Jesse will be there. Or all of them actually, since you haven’t seen them in 7 years. You get so lost in thought of them, you forget you’re walking in the woods and you run into a branch, hitting your eye. Your hand shoots up to your eye in reflex and you rub it, trying to comfort it. After rubbing, you open your eyes and wait for it to clear out. After your eyes cleared out, you notice that this area feels familiar to you. You’ve seen this before, the trail, the plants around, even that branch. You remember when you were getting “kidnapped” that branch hitting Miles in the arm, and Jesse teasing him for it. You’re close. After a few minutes of walking you start to hear people talking, you stop walking and you crouch down near a bush. ¨Are you sure she even drank the water?¨ a voice said. ¨I’m sure. She has to,¨ another voice said, sounding more familiar to you. ¨Where have you heard that voice before?¨ you think. A beat later, you hear them talking again, ¨She has to,¨ the familiar voice speaks again, ¨I even proposed to her Miles, I told her when she’s 17, drink the water, and go find us. Man, I should've told her where to look.¨ 

You stayed crouched down in shock. It’s actually them, Jesse and Miles Tuck. At first, you don’t know what to do. Should you just pop up out of nowhere? Or just wait it out? You have no idea, mine as well get over it already. You slowly get up, and start walking over to where both of them were. As you get closer you can see both of their figures, same as they were 7 years ago. You brush some stray branches out of the way, and there you are. In front of the spring, with Jesse and Miles staring at you in amusement. ¨Winnie?¨ Jesse says, looking as a happy as he can be. ¨Hey,” you respond. Both of them approach you, and hug you. ¨Well let's get going then,” Miles said softly, ¨we don't want your parents having to look for you again.¨

Here you are again, sitting on the back of the horse with Miles leading the horse and Jesse in the carriage that’s behind, carried by the horse. You've been on the horse for a decent amount of time now and you've been talking to them non-stop, so interested in all of their stories. Starting from what happened after Mae had broken out of jail, to shops they have robbed because they didn't have money or just felt like it. ¨So what gave you the idea to go the spring?¨ Jesse asks, arms folded behind his head, laying down in the carriage. ¨It was the first place that popped into my head. I guess.¨ You say. “Well, that’s some guessing there. You’re lucky we were even there,” Jesse said, eyes concentrated on the sky above him. “Imagine if we weren’t though. You’d be just a 17 year old girl looking around every corner for us,” Miles added. You hum in response. “So I’m guessing you guys found a new place to stay huh?” you wonder out loud. “Yeah, just to a place outside outside of Treegap. Probably be there in 6 hours.” Miles responds. And you feel the delightful experience of having no worries that night.

You don’t remember getting in the carriage with Jesse last night. You wake up, staring at the trees. You slowly get up, looking around for Jesse and Miles. You notice that Jesse is not far away, sitting down on a boulder and watching you. “She wakes,” he teases. “Come on, everyone’s waiting for you inside.” You blush and reach for your suitcase. He helps you down and both of you start walking inside to the new household of the Tucks. You enter and you notice the house is way more cleaner and organized than the last house. You see all of them happily eating breakfast. Mae and Tuck both look at you at the same time, and you see their faces change from confused to happy in a blink of an eye. Mae jumped up, and practically ran to you, and pulled you in a tight hug. “Oh Winnie,” she says, pulling away and looking at you, head to toe, “Look at you, you’ve grown so much!” You blush and look down at your feet, “I guess I have, haven’t I?” Tuck approaches you next and pulls you into hug, even tighter than Mae. “It’s nice to see again, Winnie. Come on, you must be starving.” You walk over to the table that was overflowed with food, and take a seat.   
///  
“Jesse, no, you don’t have to teach me,” you argue, trying not to sound scared, “You can teach me how to swim later, I’m immortal after all!” You make an attempt to cross your arms but failed when Jesse grabs your arm and pulls you into the direction of the water, “Come on Winnie, don’t be like that! It’ll be fun, I swear,” Jesse says with a pout. You sigh and finally give in. Jesse cheers and leads you to the water. You slowly walk into the ebbing water, getting used to the cooler temperature. Once the water is up to your waist, you look up to Jesse waiting for further instruction. “Alright Winnie, everything is simple. All you gotta do is kick your feet up and down, feet pointed. Also pay attention to your arms, stroke your arms like this” he pulls his arm back at an angle and then reaches forward until his elbows are locked, and pulls them down, and repeats the motion with the other arm, “Get it?” You run it through your head again and you nod. He nods back, “Okay, let’s practice then. You’ll swim the exact same way I told you, all the way to where Miles is,” he points over to where Miles is, standing in the water not too far, “once you get to him, you’ll stop, take a breath and come back, okay?” You couldn’t wait to do this, “I got this!” You get ready to dive, and wait for Jesse to tell you when to go. “3,” he counts, “2, 1, go!” You dive into the water and kick your legs, remembering to point your feet, you then start raising your arms and then reaching forward. You keep repeating until you see a cloudy figure in front of you. You pop up from the water to see Miles, with a big smile on his face. You smile back, take a breath and you start swimming towards Jesse. You finally reach Jesse, and you pop up once again, with one of the biggest smiles ever, “I did it!” you exclaim, “I actually did it!” You launch at Jesse pulling him into a big hug. You have never felt this much excitement in your life. You couldn’t wait to tell your mom, your- your parents. You feel a tinge of sadness at the memory of you losing contact to your parents, but since you didn't want Jesse to notice you were sad, you continued to act excited.

You couldn't sleep that night. After a long day of swimming with Jesse and Miles, you had changed, and had dinner with everyone. With one thing in your mind the whole time. You haven't really thought about this, the fact that you can't talk to your friends and family anymore. ¨Are you having regrets?” you think. You could live this free life, doing whatever you want. But living without the people who took care of you for the past 16 years? You couldn’t sleep with these thoughts in your head. You push the blankets away, and get up from the bed. You walk downstairs, hoping you can talk to someone. You can see Mae sitting on the porch staring at the stars, you walk onto the porch, catching her attention. ¨Winnie? What are doing up, you should be sleeping.¨ she says softly. ¨I- I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to talk to you about something,” you murmur. She pats the seat next to you, and you sit down. ¨Let me guess, you're having regrets aren't you?¨ she says. ¨How did you know?¨ you ask, eyes widening. ¨Jesse and Miles approached me the same way, they had regrets too.¨ she says. ¨How did you comfort them?¨ you ask curiously. ¨Well,¨ she says softly, ¨I said, this is the life we were led to. Sure, you have so much freedom in life, doing whatever you want, and having no worries of approaching death. But there is a challenge to that life. You get to see loved ones die, or leaving them behind to never see them again. But as you see others die, it will become repetitive, and soon won’t affect you anymore. You just have to get used to it.¨ This helped you, a lot. All you have to do is get used to it. You can get used to it. ¨Thank you. This helped a lot.¨ you say with a small smile. ¨You're welcome Winnie. Now go back to sleep, it's getting late.¨ You make your way upstairs with the most amount of comfort you’ve felt in your life.  
///  
It has been a few weeks, ever since you had that talk with Mae, and you haven’t had a single problem since then. You are sitting at the dining table eating breakfast, with Jesse and Miles. You all made small talk, occasionally saying something. “You know Winnie, today’s a big day for all of us.” Jesse says out of nowhere. “Why?” You ask curiously. He just smiles back and goes back to eating his pancakes, leaving you confused. You were about to ask him again, but you get interrupted when Mae and Tuck waltz into the room with 2 suitcases. “Oh good, you’re all awake. Now, hurry up and finish your breakfast, and then start packing. Today’s a big day after all,” Mae says, directed at you, then looks over to the boys, “Same goes for you too boys,” and makes her way outside to where Tuck is loading the suitcases. “Wait Mae!” you call out, making her stop in her tracks. “Yes, Winnie?” she asks worriedly, stiffening up. “Why is it such a big day today? What are we doing?” you ask, making her calm down. She looks over to the boys, and shoots them a glare, and you can see them both shrink into their chairs. “Well, I was hoping that either of the boys would tell you, but they didn’t,” she looks back over to you with, more softer eyes, “We’re going to Paris, Winnie. Don’t worry,” and makes her way to where Tuck is. No way. We’re going to Paris? ¨Sorry we didn't tell you earlier Winnie.¨ Miles says. ¨It's fine.¨ You say, trying to hide your excitement, but failing, when you brake into a huge smile. ¨You're going to Paris,¨ you think, putting your empty dish into the sink, ¨You're actually going to Paris.¨ 

It's been a few days since you and the Tucks left the house and made your way to Paris. They had used 3 horses. One for Tuck and Mae, with a carriage in the back, carrying the luggage. One for Miles, and one horse for you and Jesse, and a carriage in the back when you want to rest. You get lost in thought in what you can do in Paris. You´ve always wanted to visit the Louvre, you heard so much of it, it held sculptures and many paintings, one of which is the Mona Lisa, in which you’ve heard was a painting of a beautiful lady, which you have been anticipating to see ever since you were 7. Another thing you can’t wait for is the Eiffel Tower. You’ve always wanted to walk all those 328 steps to the top, and get to see the amazing view. Especially with Jesse.

You were awaken by someone nudging your side. You open your eyes to see Jesse´s beautiful face. ¨Hey sleeping beauty, you should get up now,¨ he smiles, ¨We're here.¨ We're here? You slowly get up, looking around to catch the beauty of Paris. You're actually here, and you smile. In the corner of your eye, you see a tall tower. You look over, and there it is the Eiffel Tower. You look over to where Jesse was, and you see Mae, Tuck and Miles behind him, with comforting smiles on their face. You can get used to this new life. ¨So Winnie,¨ Jesse says, catching your attention, ¨Did you wanna climb those 328 stairs with me? You know, just like we promised all those years ago.¨ You smile and nod, making your way over, but you stop when you remember Mae, Tuck, and Miles were here with you. ¨How about you guys?¨ you ask them. ¨Oh, it's fine. Go on Winnie, we'll be waiting.¨ Tuck says.  
You and Jesse both make your way to the top, excitement filling you, each step you take. Once you get to the top, you couldn’t help but run a over to the side to see the view you’ve been anticipating to see. And it’s a beautiful view. You can see many greens going down the middle, from trees and hedges, and a mix of gray and brown from the buildings surrounding it, some buildings fully built, some still in the process of making. In the corner of your eye, you can see Jesse crouching down. You look over, to see him down on one knee, holding a velvet case with a shiny diamond ring inside. You can get used to this life. But this is only the beginning.


End file.
